This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
USC endocrinologist, veteran provides aid for underprivileged in Vietnam
Peter A. Singer, MD, is Chairman of the Board of Directors of East Meets West, a humanitarian organization.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
When Peter A. Singer, MD, was a battalion doctor with the U.S. Armed Forces in Da Nang, Vietnam, from 1966 to 1967, the experience opened his eyes to the significant needs of the Vietnamese people.
While stationed there, he initiated medical and relief efforts for disadvantaged children experiencing the effects of the Vietnam War.
“I wanted to put a different face on the military,” he told Endocrine Today.
After serving his tour as battalion doctor, he vowed to return to Vietnam one day and continue the efforts he started.
This spurred his involvement with the East Meets West Foundation, a non-profit grassroots organization with the goal to transform the health, education and communities of disadvantaged people in Southeast Asia with special projects, such as building access to clean water and providing proper medical treatment and education. Singer currently maintains the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors, a position he has held for more than 15 years.
“This is my passion. If you find something you love to do, you keep doing it,” said Singer, professor of medicine at University of Southern California School of Medicine, Los Angeles. There, he is active in clinical practice, teaching and research, with specific interests thyroid and pituitary disorders. He is also past-president of the American Thyroid Association and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
As East Meets West chairman, Singer makes several site visits to Vietnam each year and has an integral role in the high-level decisions of East Meets West. There, he meets with East Meets West staff members, hospital and government officials; reviews current projects; and occasionally makes hospital rounds, he said.
Providing aid in Vietnam
“Our first significant project was a clinic we built on China Beach, which was about a mile from where I was stationed with my battalion during the war,” said Singer.
Since its inception in 1988, East Meets West has initiated and implemented numerous projects in Southeast Asia. In fact, 1.1 million people were served by East Meets West projects in 2007 (see sidebar).
One project, Operation Healthy Heart, was the creation of a surgery program to heal heart defects in children.
“We want to increase capacity for heart surgery. There are 22,000 to 24,000 kids in Vietnam with congential heart disease on the waiting list for surgery, but with only 3,000 operations being done each year, a lot of kids are dying in the meantime,” he said. In order to increase capacity, East Meets West recently built a 200-bed cardiovascular hospital in Hue, Vietnam.
Other East Meets West projects and programs include SPELL, a scholarship program to improve education and encourage learning; Breath of Life, which supplies hospitals with medical equipment and training to save the lives of premature infants and newborns; a clean water and sanitation program that provides access to safe water and sanitation; and a dental program that provides free dental care and outreach trips and a mobile clinic to reach poor children.
According to Singer, his background in medicine and endocrinology has aided his work immensely.
“My medical knowledge is essential because I can interact with physicians here and abroad, as well as with donors who need to know about aspects of our medically-related programs,” he said.
What sets East Meets West apart from many other non-government organizations is that it works closely with the people of Vietnam, according to Singer.
“Rather than being an 800-lb gorilla, we partner with and have ongoing relationships with the folks we help. We have on-the-ground staff in Vietnam. Many other organizations go, do the work and then just leave,” he said.
|
Photo provided by Jon Nalick |
From east to west
East Meets West is based in Oakland, Calif., and has offices and staff in Da Nang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Thai Binh, Kon Tum and Quang Ngai and operates in 90% of Vietnam’s provinces.
Singer said the future of East Meets West continues to be exciting, with plans to continue and implement new programs and expand into other areas of Southeast Asia, such as Cambodia, Laos, and even as far away as East Timor, where access to health care is poor.
When he’s not on the phone during his long commute to USC discussing East Meets West issues or seeing patients as an endocrinologist, he spends time with his wife Marjorie Kagawa-Singer, a professor of Public Health and Asian American Studies at UCLA, and their two children, Jonathan and Joana.
“I do this because there is a need and I think I can have an impact. Our mission of East Meets West is still not completed and until we are done, I’m not done,” he said. – by Katie Kalvaitis
For more information: